Favorite Rip-offs

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Recently, some pretty ridiculous things have been assaulting me from the TV, from friends, and even my own family. I've shared a handful of them with you from time to time, but of late, it seems like there's a lot more than usual going on. It occurred to me that Snopes.com has a good thing going on: they expose fakes and the like, and they're pretty much the authority about that kind of thing. They've branded themselves well. I've always liked debunkers, which I suppose is why I have a lot of respect for Snopes, Mythbusters, and the Amazing Randy and Johnny Carson. Yep, I like Adam and Jaime for more than their ability to blow things sky high.

I came up with a great idea on how to rip off people while making them think I'm doing them a favor. Actually, I thought of a few ways, and I'll share them now and then. Today's idea has to do with on-line auctions.

Imagine for a moment that you wanted to run an auction website. How do you cut in on giants like Ebay? You have to come up with something different, of course. Like so...

Bagel Dogs!!!!!!

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O frabjous day! My life is nearing completion thanks in part to my newest sweetheart, Lisa Bang. Embarrassingly cute and unimaginably smart, Lisa came to my rescue when woe had struck me low. For two decades, my life has been missing something incredibly important, something no one should be without. (Unless they're so unimaginative and unadventurous as to put down or just plain not like my second-favorite Hebrew invention; kiss my grits, Natalie!)

Sam's Club used to carry them by the bagful and we'd get two or three bags a month. They were amazing to behold. Simply pop one in the microwave after coming home from a rough day at school, dip 'em in ketchup, and all was suddenly right with the world.

I am of course talking about the wonder that is the bagel dog. Yes, the modest, unassuming bagel dog.

For reasons inexplicable to me, Sam's Club stopped selling bagel dogs around 20 years ago, though for a little while they still continued to sell the not-nearly-so-enjoyable mini bagle dog. (Insert :shudder: emoticon here.) Like the Amiga, original Frosted Mini Wheats, Top Shelf lasagna, Black Pepperjack Doritos, $5 seafood buffets at the casinos, Lemon-Lime Slice, Lacey Chabert, and reasonable prices at Arby's, as soon as I found them and fell in love with them, they disappeared without a trace and were never heard from again.

Expose Yourself #2 - Straight to the T.O.P.

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In this series of articles, I talk to people who have been successful at taking control of their lives, making a name for themselves, and helping others to do the same. I’m very fortunate to have met them, and very thankful they have agreed to spend a few minutes talking with me to share part of their stories. We’re going to delve into what it took to propel these people from ordinary lives into extraordinary lives. We’ll find out where they’ve been, where they are, and where they’re going as each guest is asked to “Expose Yourself”.

My guest today was rather unexpected, but I knew when I saw her that I had to talk to her. Hailing from Portugal, she spent many years of her life building businesses to the break-even point and then selling them off for a profit, so she knows what it takes to build one. She's been to several countries throughout Europe in this pursuit, and even came across the pond several times a year for vacation, until she met a restaurateur in need of her specialized talents, and found in him something missing in her own life. The two married and she took over his restaurant and turned it into something special. For the last six years, she's been in Palm Coast, doing what she does best: making her customers glad they came to her.

Currently she's running the Taste of Portugal restaurant in Palm Coast, Florida, which has great food and a relaxed environment; allow me to introduce Maria Diamanfino!

MD: Hello, everyone!

JC: Thanks for talking with me, Maria! Wow, are all Portuguese women as pretty as you are?

Writing is Easy

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They say everyone has a story in them, but not everyone knows how to tell it, and not everyone knows how to sell it. Wouldn't it be nice if you could tell your story in a way that others found interesting, entertaining, even gripping? And heck, why not make some money at it?

Today, after attending a great book-debut party put on by a local publisher, I had the pleasure of reading through a very interesting new book, written by four fun people, about how to write.

Why am I, master writer that I obviously am, reading a book on how to write?

Because it's not one of those typical books on how to write. It's better than that, and this is why:

Expose Yourself #1 – Smilin’ Bill

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About a year ago, when I moved my site to Blogger.com, I promised I’d bring to your attention some of the interesting people I know or have met. It took a little while to make this one happen, but I keep my promises.

In this series of articles, I’ll talk to people who have been successful at taking control of their lives, making a name for themselves, and helping others to do the same. I’m very fortunate to have met them, and very thankful they have agreed to spend a few minutes talking with me to share part of their stories. We’re going to delve into what it took to propel these people from ordinary lives into extraordinary lives. We’ll find out where they’ve been, where they are, and where they’re going as each guest is asked to “Expose Yourself”.

Today I’m talking to a real, living legend. Inspired by the likes of Gene Autry, Roy Rogers, and Tom Mix, he became a cowboy musician and horseman who performed across the Midwest, all before he turned 18. At 21, God came into his life and set him on a new path. Starting at age 29, he began a career as a highly successful environmental engineer, designing hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of public works projects. During the next 33 years he married, started a family, and became a church leader.

He recently began to write and is now a highly acclaimed author with an award-winning book, creating his own publishing company in the process. Today, you might mistake this pillar of the community for a spry 60 year old because he’s so active in his community, but what got my attention was his super-positive attitude, an encouraging word for everyone, and a laugh that comes easily.

In the 1940’s, you knew him on stage as, “Smilin’ Bill and his Wonder Horse King.” Please welcome William Cummins!

WC: Hello everyone! Please call me Bill.

JC: Howdy, Bill, thanks for coming; I’m totally psyched! This is almost like getting Marilyn Monroe in the inaugural issue of Playboy, except you get to keep your clothes on.

Today is Polycast Day

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Greetings, y'all! And welcome all you dang foreigners from other countries. Dear Lord, be with our guests and prepare them for the butt-whoopin' they are about to receive! - Jeff Foxworthy, Intro to the Redneck Games.

I'm so excited! Today is Polycast Day, and I'll tell you more about it in a minute.

I should be congratulated because I'm finally caught up on the ebay shipping debacle! Last weekend I sent three boxes of goodies to paying customers, and somehow the post office managed to undercharge me, so instead of just sending the boxes on, they spent more than the difference to send them back, which, of course, cuts into MY costs and credibility too. And since I was out all weekend, I didn't have any way to take care of it until Wednesday. But I did manage to get them in the post, with the proper postage this time, and thsoe of you who bought box-games from me will be getting them soon. (They have NOT come back here, so they must be getting shipped.)

Also, I may have found a replacement to get the rest of my stuff listed. I was hoping she'd be coming over this morning, but I haven't heard back from her yet. She came over yesterday to check out the size of the job, then provided a BRILLIANT solution to the problem.

More RPG books went up

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Here's the list of items available.

A lot more will be going up. I'm working hard to find someone to get this taken care of in the way I expected it to be taken care of in the first place.

With the way I just slammed Asus, I wouldn't be surprised if they declare war on me and start slamming me back, so to head off any of that, you can check my feedback, ask any of my customers or regular readers anything you want about me, and of course google for me and find out what kind of person I really am. (Hint: I used Sidewiki on their site after posting the flame directly below this post.)

I don't usually take stands like that, or even flame others, but really, charging my shop guy for something that's still in warranty, and not even sending me the computer I asked for, is pretty freakin' low, even for a faceless corporation. After all the garbage I've dealt with from them for the past 4+ years, I doubt I'll ever buy another Asus product again.
But anyway, there's a lot more that's going to go up in the coming days, both here and in my list of auctions, so keep an eye out. I've got a guest writer promising to start posting, among other things.

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It's not over yet

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The fire sale on my gaming collection is still going. We've gotten about 1/3 of all the books put on Ebay over the past couple weeks. Some sweet stuff went for some really low prices, and the rest of it is lined up to go. I'm heart-broken that no one wanted a Star Wars movie poster puzzle, but eventually I'll relist it and be sure it's got a picture with it. My helper has promised to put more items up tonight and tomorrow while I'm at my business meeting, so we'll see if she really does.

I just sent off several packages to the winners from last week. Sorry it took a little longer to get them sent than I thought they would, but they're in the mail as of a few hours ago. Then I had to go and mark all those items as shipped, leave feedback, and of course, thank each person for their help in getting my teetering bookshelves cleared. One day soon, it may be possible to dust!

All the boxed games I intend to sell are gone. I'm holding on to Munchkin 1-5 sets and my recent-edition Axis and Allies game for now. I have dreams of playing it! We play Munchkin now and then. But I've still got a ton of Traveller stuff, GURPS stuff, some Challenge magazines, and a few Battletech items. And after that, I've got a few other treats in store for you, so keep on checking out my list of stuff, right here!

Thanks!

I'll be posting some other stuff soon too; I'm way overdue for something not related to getting rid of my gaming stuff. Frex, I redid the TrueFacts because apparently WYSIWYG doesn't strictly apply to internet applications. When I added a few new truths, I also needed to add another picture to balance them out. Somehow, it broke the page! Shame on you, Lacey! The only way to fix what broke was to change the way it looks, but at least now I won't have that problem again, AND different screen resolutions no longer see something totally different.

I also created a whole page for my Civilization 4 contributions, now that Blogger supports that. Check it out! There's a list of pages toward the upper-left corner. Right now there's only the two: my Civ contributions and the main site.

Be your best!

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The Beat Goes On

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And so does the fire sale!

I hired on someone to help me list my items while Ebay was having their free-listing sale. I was expecting to get everything listed over the course of last week, but apparently she's not swimming in as much free time as I was lead to believe, so things are taking longer than I thought they would.

Rest assured, the items that were listed are only a fraction of all that's going to be available once it's all listed.

Here's the list of items still available.

A lot of good stuff has gone for cheap already, and more is to come.

We're combining shipping however you'd like and shipping via USPS. If you want it different, just say so.

Thank you all for your effort, and I'll let you know how it goes.

Putting my gaming stuff up for auction on E-bay

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Hey everyone! A few days ago, I decided it was time to cut the cord. Over the past 15 years or so, I've been collecting all kinds of cool gaming goodness and books and other stuff. When I moved down here to Florida almost six years ago, I had to part with a lot of my stuff, primarily my Amiga and Commodore stuff, plus my model railroading stuff. We had a big house auction, at which I got rid of some of that stuff, including a TON of very valuable computer magazines and software, not to mention the computers themselves.

I took it like a man, but man did I hate to throw that stuff out. At the time, I didn't have the resources to find good homes for it all.

This time, things are different. This time, I've got the power of the internet behind me, plus a friend is helping me out. This time, my pride and joy will go to good homes like yours.

Up for sale we have things like:

Megatraveller - nearly complete collection from GDW
Traveller The New Era - damn-near complete collection, I think maybe it IS complete
Marc Miller's Traveller (T4) - most of the books
GURPS Traveller 3e - so very close to complete it's not even funny, some of them quite rare
GURPS 3e - assorted books, I don't even remember which ones, but lots of them
Traveller Novels - I think I have all 3 of them
Battletech - All kinds of stuff for Battletech!
Robotech - All kinds of Robotech stuff too!
And a few other tidbits. But that's not all!

I was a big-time playtester at Eagle Games back when it was run by Glenn Drover, and I've got most of their early games, like the Civilization Boardgame my group used extensively and with which I created my legendary ACR3 (Alternate Combat Rules), which are still available over at Boardgamegeek.com. My Age of Mythology set is a customized set in that it's got all the components needed to play a NINE PLAYER GAME. Better, my Attack! and Attack! Expansion game is also customized and you can play with up to TEN PLAYERS! Use it for those big gatherings at the game store.

All of these boxed games were personally handed to me by Glenn Drover himself, so there may still be some DNA samples of him if you want to try to clone him and play the games with him. Also, I'm pretty sure Sid Meier breathed on my copy of Civ at least once.

EVERYTHING up for sale is in EXCELLENT condition, LIKE NEW, unless it says otherwise. There are a few books I got from other people, primarily in the Megatraveller range, which weren't in good condition when I got them because they were used heavily. One book was de-spined and put into a binder, but I've thrown in some free campaign notes and blank world sheets and stuff. The boxed games might have one or two pieces missing or damaged; as I recall, a Spearman took a bullet for me.

This is virtually my entire collection of gaming material, in outstanding condition, now available to you because I need the room to hide bodies, I mean, my bookshelf was about to break.

I'd like to thank you all very much for so many years of gaming goodness. If anyone wants mbe to autograph something while I'm only a few days away from becoming famous and my autograph becomes worth millions of dollars, I might be willing to do that if you ask nicely and get my PA to pass along the request. She will of course do her best to combine shipping to save you as much as possible.

Thank you, bid early, bid often. Here's the list of what I'm selling, check back often, as my PA is adding to it as she gets the chance.

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A minor update on what's going on around here

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I just updated my TrueFacts about Lacey Chabert page with several new items I just discovered. Click on the link to check it out, and show a little support for my friend, Lacey! One day, she's going to be an actress! She promised me she would be, and she never ever breaks her promises! Nope, never! You can help her (and me) by linking up this page. I've even included a handy picture at the bottom of that page for you to use! Then one day, she'll be world famous, and she'll thank you for it! (She won't thank me for it, though, because that's just the way she rolls.)

Amazon Deal Event

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Amazon.com sells just about everything nowadays, and now, those masters of online selling are running a wide-ranging sale on movies and TV shows for the next couple weeks, and I thought I'd get you in on it while it's still going on.

Here's what they say:



Amazon Movies & TV is pleased to announce our first 2010 Deals Event which will run through January 24, 2010, while supplies last. This event will feature DVDs and Blu-ray discs with savings of up to 50% off, including:

• Over 200 Fitness DVDs including yoga, pregnancy, and dance workouts, and featuring celebrity trainers such as Jillian Michaels and Denise Austin
• Hundreds of hit movies including some the biggest new releases from Q4, 2009
• Over 400 indie and art house films including Oscar® winners Juno, Milk, and Lost in Translation
• Over 450 TV shows including HBO favorites, NBC comedy, and more

 Click here to take advantage of this great deal, and don't forget, everything you buy through the links I've provided helps keep this site improving. Thanks!

(BTW, they've also got some kind of Kindle deal going on. Click here to check it out.)

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